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THE WAITING GAME: A House-Senate conference on the transportation bill is taking shape — slowly. The Senate had planned to name conferees last night, but got bogged down with work on a postal service reform bill. Aides from both chambers said the list should be unveiled early next week. Bill Pascrell told MT he heard a conference meeting might even happen as early as next week — but then added “maybe.”

KEYSTONED: Speaker Boehner interpreted the support of 69 Democrats for the surface transportation extension and attached Keystone legislation as a vote that proves there is a “veto-proof” majority for the pipeline. Not so fast, say House Dems who supported the legislation. “I voted exclusively to get it to conference,” Tim Bishop told MT, and interviews with a good amount of those 69 Dems echoed that point. “To read this as a message of veto-proof support for Keystone or other irrelevant pieces is ridiculous,” a leadership aide told MT. But when MT asked an aide for Boehner if there would be bipartisan lobbying for Keystone to be included in the conferenced transportation legislation, the reply was: “Of course.” More for Pros from Burgess/Adam: http://politico.pro/J9F4in

‘Sticking point’: Keystone could be the conference “sticking point,” Rep. Dan Lipinski told MT, and the highly politicized nature of the pipeline could bog everything down. The Illinois Dem said he’d be “very happy” if the Senate bill came back to the House with the pipeline attached but doesn’t think that is likely. Nor any successful conference, for that matter. “I’m losing some of that optimism ... just talking to people here,” he said. “I’m trying to get a sense of what the Senate will accept. What kind of sweetener?”

MEGA-CONFERENCE: Expect a big conference — four Senate committees and five House committees all have jurisdiction over parts of their respective bills. “It’s going to be a large conference, I imagine,” T&I ranking member Nick Rahall said yesterday.

Each party’s leaders — House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — make the final decision on who to appoint. “I assume it’s done according to the full ratio of the House membership,” Rahall said. John Mica said he was sending a letter to Speaker Boehner recommending conferees from the committee on Thursday, and Bill Shuster guessed “there will be 10 [Republicans] from the T&I Committee and Democrats will get, I don’t know, seven.”

The four Senate committees: EPW, Finance, Commerce and Banking. On the House side: T&I, Ways and Means, Natural Resources, Science and Energy and Commerce

Republicans eager: MT spoke to several Republicans on the T&I Committee who were interested in serving but hadn’t officially asked to be named. “I hope that I’ll be one of the conferees, but I haven’t asked anybody about that,” senior member Jim Duncan told MT. “I would love to serve but haven’t pursued it. But I’d certainly be available if the Speaker wanted me to,” freshman Randy Hultgren told MT.

Bow to the leaders: Just like the FAA negotiations, which were held up for months, talks on the surface transportation bill hinge on House and Senate leaders. Rep. Jim Duncan, chairman of T&I’s Highways and Transit panel, said that’s a typical approach to major legislation. “Most of these negotiations on this bill has been like most things in this Congress — they’ve gone on really between Reid and his aides and the speaker and his aides. And not just out of our committee, out of every committee,” he told MT.

Coal ash: There’s been lots of attention on the environmental streamlining provisions and RAMP Act that were added to the extension — but Pascrell told MT he thinks the coal ash language won’t survive. “That coal ash thing has never been ironed out, and that’s in there. I think we can get that out of there in conference. I think we can help the coal miners in other ways than making sure we simply landfill the contamination,” he told MT.

SO WHAT WILL BE IN THERE? Shuster and Mica told reporters as much of H.R. 7 as they can get through — but one thing that isn’t happening is a change to dedicated transit funding. “We have 25 suburban/urban guys that just aren’t going to go for it,” Shuster said, adding the Senate is filled with urban politicians as well. “It’ll remain the way it is.” Mica said there will be meetings next week to figure out what the top priorities will be — but environmental streamlining is a huge one.

“Shovel ready is a joke unless we do something about that,” Mica said of the provision, of which the GOP took “the whole thing out of H.R. 7.” Mica also alluded to the possibility that the House tries to get something out of the House-passed PIONEERS Act, the domestic energy bill originally envisioned as a companion — and funding source — for H.R. 7. “I was told yesterday that it would be sent over, too,” Mica said. But the House and Senate can only go to conference on one bill from each chamber, so it would be curious if they switched things up after Wednesday's successful vote.

TIMING SNAFU: Rahall was angry that the conferees hadn’t yet been announced. “It’s been 24 hours now and the Republican chairman hasn't got the letter out to the Speaker asking that conferees are appointed. You heard his commitment on the floor yesterday. How long does it take to get a letter out asking your speaker for a conference?” When MT informed him that Mica had told reporters his “immediate deadline” is June 30, Rahall got more steamed. “Is he going to tell the American workers that's the deadline for them to know if they have a job or not?”

** A message from Edison Electric Institute. The future of transportation is ELECTRIC! From passenger vehicles to delivery trucks and fleet vehicles to mass transit, electricity is becoming the fuel that moves Americans. Find our more at www.eei.org. **

TWEAKING LAHOOD, PART 2: Mica said he was very happy with the Democratic support his stop-gap bill accrued. “Mr. LaHood had said that normally we pass a bill by 300 votes in a bipartisan fashion. I’m going to send him a note and say we fell seven short of the mark, but I also didn’t have 6,300 earmarks.”

HIGH-SPEED RAIL DERAILED: Senate appropriators approved a DOT funding bill that sets back any hopes of federal funding for high-speed rail, one of President Obama’s biggest transportation priorities. It includes a token $100 million for capital projects for existing “high performance passenger rail service” — but also rescinds nearly $2 million in previously-appropriated HSR funds. Kathryn and Jessica have the Pro story: http://politico.pro/JjYUE6

No mind readers: Appropriators also gave a notice to DOT in the funding bill: No pricey conference with mind readers. The legacy of GSA crept into the funding bill with an amendment requiring a paper trail for costly conferences. Ron Johnson’s amendment requires that officials account for events over $20,000 and submit detailed reports to the IG. Pros can read more from Jessica: http://politico.pro/IDgpQL

ARC reactor: The Senate's fiscal 2013 DOT appropriations bill contains $20 million for Amtrak's Gateway Tunnel project, an ambitious $13.5 billion project to create a new high-speed rail tunnel between Secaucus, N.J. and New York's Penn Station. The project is similar to the ARC tunnel, which N.J. Governor Chris Christie canceled using what some have said were fishy numbers.

INTERVENTION: DOT Secretary Ray LaHood plans to meet Wednesday with Silver Line stakeholders concerned that the second piece of the Metro project — to Dulles airport — may be delayed. WaPo: http://wapo.st/HTRBHU

FLYING IN, SAFELY: From our colleagues at POLITICO Influence: “About 80 members of the American Traffic Safety Services Association are preparing to storm Capitol Hill next Wednesday and Thursday to advocate for the long-term transportation bill and other issues, the association tells PI. Reps. Lou Barletta, Jason Altmire and Richard Hanna are among the members scheduled to talk with association representatives. In all, the association says it plans to meet with staffers from about 120 congressional offices. Highway, rural road and elderly safety issues are also on its lobbying agenda. The association, which represents companies and individuals who produce and provide roadway safety devices and materials, typically spends from $200,000 to $350,000 annually on federal lobbying efforts, federal records show.”

HAPPY TRAILS TWO-FER: Today is spokesman Greg Soule’s last day with the TSA. He is moving on to North Carolina with his wife after nine years with the agency. Greg has always promptly responded to MT’s emails, and for that we thank him and wish him luck.

It’s also the last day for Amanda Straub, media relations assistant for the National League of Cities. She moves over to the Association of American Publishers. “It has been a pleasure working with all of you throughout my time at NLC,” she writes in an email. Amanda, too, was great about getting back to us. Thanks!

MT POLL -- It’s a gas: How has $4 per gallon gas affected your commute? Have you switched to transit, are you driving less or are you just grinning through the financial pain? Voting ends Sunday night. Be heard and see results: http://poll.fm/3nhve

AVIATION LETTER DOUBLE-DOSE — Drone on: Reps. Ed Markey and Joe Barton, co-chairmen of the Congressional Bipartisan Privacy Caucus, sent a letter to acting FAA head Michael Huerta to raise privacy concerns with the non-military use of unmanned aircraft (aka drones). The letter includes a long list of questions, such as what privacy protections are currently in place and how many drones have been registered. Kathryn recently covered this issue (http://politi.co/HLqXgm). Read the letter: http://1.usa.gov/I1QFxy

Private Activity Bonds: ACI-NA president Greg Principato wrote Finance Chair Max Baucus and Ways and Means head Dave Camp asking that they push to exempt PABs from the Alternative Minimum Tax as the surface transport conference moves ahead. PABs can help fund major infrastructure projects but are more expensive when the AMT is applied. Read the letter: http://bit.ly/ISRE0O

RUSH+ EXPLAINED: MT’s anecdotal evidence shows a number of Metro riders are confused by the new Rush+ system that takes effect June 18. A new WMATA video (the first in a series) tries to explain it: http://bit.ly/I9YT8n

THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy runs out in 71 days, DOT funding in 163 days and FAA policy in 1,259 days. There are 200 days before the 2012 election. It's been 933 days and nine extensions since SAFETEA-LU expired.

GETTING IN THE SPIRIT: Spirit Airlines, famous for its “DOT unintended consequences fee,” is now promoting itself online with an ad declaring it “Great Savings Airlines.” The thinly-veiled crack at the government scandal features a large GSA font that’s studded in diamonds, complete with animated sparkles. Check it out, via 44: http://politi.co/IT18cu

** A message from Edison Electric Institute: With prices at the pump skyrocketing, it's time to look for a better way to fuel our cars and trucks. Fortunately, with electricity, we can fuel our vehicles for the equivalent of $1 per gallon! The new generation of electric vehicles will help our country enter an era of clean transportation, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and create new, high-quality American jobs. The future of transportation is ELECTRIC! Find out more at www.eei.org. **